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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2022

        Creating the Opium War

        by Hao Gao, Andrew Thompson

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2026

        The dilemma of Authority

        by Allyn Fives

        The moral problem of authority is the challenge of reconciling legitimate authority (the right to rule) with the demands of freedom and rationality. In this book, I argue that authority can have legitimacy, but when it does it generates a moral dilemma, where the obligation to obey comes at some cost to freedom and reason. Hence, not only do I depart from the views of those who insist that authority can never have legitimacy, but also those who maintain that insofar as authority is legitimate it simply satisfies the demands of freedom or rationality. My focus here will be on both what it is that justifies authority (in particular focusing on membership, and the goods of membership) as well what type of reason an authoritative directive is, how it can come into conflict with others reasons, and how those conflicts are resolved.

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        May 2021

        Disciplined agency

        Neoliberal precarity, generational dispossession and call centre labour in Portugal

        by Patrícia Alves de Matos

        Since the mid-2000s, the harsh reality of call centre employment for a generation of young workers in Portugal has been impossible to ignore. With its endless rows of small cubicles, where human agents endure repetitive telephone conversations with abusive clients under invasive modes of technological surveillance, discipline and control, call centre work remains a striking symbol of labour precarity, a condition particularly associated with the neoliberal generational disenchantment that 'each generation does better than its predecessor'. This book describes the emergence of a regime of disciplined agency in the Portuguese call centre sector. Examining the ascendancy of call centres as icons of precarity in contemporary Portugal, this book argues that call centre labour constitutes a new form of commodification of the labouring subject. De Matos argues that call centres represent an advanced system of non-manual labour power exploitation, due to the underestimation of human creativity that lies at the centre of the regimented structures of call centre labour. Call centres can only guarantee profit maintenance, de Matos argues, through the commodification of the human agency arising from the operators' moral, relational and social embedded agentive linguistic interventions of creative improvisation, decision-making, problem-solving and ethical evaluation.

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2020

        US politics today

        by Edward Ashbee, Bill Jones

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2026

        A Confucian theory of power

        by Sungmoon Kim

        In the book's lead essay, Sungmoon Kim offers a comprehensive analysis of Confucian power. Through a blend of philosophical, political, and historical analysis, Kim challenges the dominant idea that Confucianism is primarily centred on virtue ethics. Instead, he argues that Confucianism perceives power through the prism of responsibility. Kim not only traces this perspective throughout history but also demonstrates its relevance to contemporary society. He contrasts this Confucian perspective with Western political theory's view of power as control. Political theorists and philosophers will offer essay responses to Sungmoon Kim's provocation, offering a dialogue approach to provide a comprehensive analysis of the Confucian conception of power.

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        Literature & Literary Studies
        May 2026

        Women’s Agency and the Gothic in Spain and the Americas

        by Megan DeVirgilis, Sandra García Gutiérrez

        This volume has emerged to fulfill two main purposes: Primarily, to constitute the first collaborative work that traces the relationship between the Gothic and Women in Spain and the Americas, but also, to surpass the term 'Female Gothic,' coined by Ellen Moers, by transferring the focus towards women and their agency as writers, readers and characters. This volume functions as a manifesto per se to open new avenues into understanding how women have interacted with the Gothic between the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries in Spain and the Americas. The question, we determine, is not simply about identity, but rather about agency. We define women's agency as the total capacity of characters, authors and readers to act freely within a social framework in relation to gothic texts. In our exploration of authorship, we reject the claim that the Gothic is a simplistic literary genre, instead sustaining that the plasticity of the Gothic has enabled it to survive for centuries; by shifting from a genre to a mode, it has surpassed literary forms and invaded all kinds of media: from film to music and merchandise such as clothing and pop culture collectables, fostering an authentic goth fandom.

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        December 2008

        Princely power in the Dutch Republic

        Patronage and William Frederick of Nassau (1613–64)

        by Geert Janssen, Joseph Bergin, Penny Roberts, Bill Naphy

        Based on one of the richest surviving diaries of the Dutch Golden Age, Princely Power in the Dutch Republic recaptures the social world of William Frederick of Nassau (1613-1664). As a Stadholder and relative of the Prince of Orange, William Frederick was among the key players in a fragmented republican state system. This study offers a vivid analysis of his political strategies and reveals how unwritten codes of patronage guided his daily contacts and shaped his mental world. As a patron at his court and as a client of the Prince of Orange, William Frederick developed distinctive patronage roles, appropriate to different social spheres. By assessing these different roles, Janssen provides a unique insight into the ways in which a seventeenth-century nobleman negotiated and articulated clientage, friendship and corruption in his life. This study offers an in-depth analysis of political practices in the Dutch Republic and reconsiders the way in which patronage shaped early modern politics, affected religious divisions and framed social identities. ;

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        February 2009

        Local government today

        by J. Chandler, Bill Jones

        Local government today provides a comprehensive analysis of the structure, finance, management and democratic framework for local government in Britain. This new edition has been substantially rewritten to encompass the many changes to the structure and function of the system since 2000, including developments flowing from the 2007 Local Government Act. The study discusses how, during the Blair years, local governments came to be seen once again as centrally important institutions within Britain's political system. However, they are not seen as organisations that can function as separate agencies, undertaking all their duties 'in-house'. They are now required to work in partnership with the private, public and voluntary sectors to deliver local services and represent local interests. It is further argued that, for the first time in over a century, the barriers between civil servants and senior local government officers are being eroded as central government begins to incorporate leading local government officials into its decision-making processes. This established textbook also offers a comparative focus by showing how the British system differs from the structures for local governance in Western Europe and the United States. ;

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